The Hawan - a tradition

Centuries ago, the Deva - Yagna, Homa or Hawan was almost a practice. It was performed early in the morning every single day. Unfortunately, the custom has been forgotten by the new generation.

But even in this modern age, D.A.V. has not forgotten India's rich culture. The Hawan is not merely a ritual, but a simple and a healthy process which gives us peace and quiet for a small amount of time, which we are quite unlikely to find.

The founder of the D.A.V. group of schools, Swami Dayananda Saraswathi, has said, "The Deva Yagna is the second duty of man". In this great Homa we pray to Agni - the god of fire - to cleanse our body, mind and soul of all sins, to keep our spirits high like Agni.

The necessary things of the Hawan are - samagri, ghee, water, camphor and dry faggots. Four girls perform the Hawan, while the rest of us chant along with them. This goes class by class.

The Hawan is performed to purify the atmosphere. The heat of the fire kills micro-organisms and pollutants in the air. As we all know, hot air moves up and cool breeze follows. When we feed the Agni in the Hawan Kund with faggots, ghee, samagri and camphor, it crackles, bursts and thus leaves the atmosphere fresh, clean, cool and fragrant.

To prove that it purifies the air around us, this happened during the Bhopal gas tragedy. When the Union Carbide plant spewed toxic gas into the air, the only people who escaped unharmed was a family which performed the Hawan daily.

Here at D.A.V., we do the Hawan every Saturday. We start with the Sandhya, continue with Agni Hotra, which is followed by the Gayathri Mantra and which finally ends with the "Shanthi Padh".

After this, selected students speak on chosen topics like humanity, god and determination. For those 40 minutes, the school focusses on inner peace and tranquility, forgetting stress, tension, pollution, problems and for that matter - the outside world.

We at D.A.V. take pride in practising Indian traditions for the good of mankind.

To sum up, the Hawan is a very healthy ritual which should be practised by one and all. This may lead to a cleaner, greener environment and make the world a better place to live in. One of the very important mantras of the Hawan when translated into English reads:

May all be blessed with Happiness,

May all be free from diseases,

Blessed be all with Nobility,

Freed from sorrow and misery.

NISHA RAVINDRANATHAN,

R. LALITHA,

S. JANANI,

AARTHI J.,

PARVATHY V., VIII C

DAV GIRLS S S SCHOOL, Chennai

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